The AR.Drone 2.0 has two high-definition cameras that stream and record video on your control device.

Just when you thought the Parrot AR.Drone was awesome, it gets awesomer. Parrot gave quadricopter enthusiasts a sneak peek at its new AR.Drone 2.0 at CES Las Vegas. Sporting new HD cameras it can stream and record a 720p video in front or below at 30fps. The 1280×720 camera also has a 92-degree, wide-angle lens. Instrument upgrades such as a pressure sensor for better altitude control and new electronic assistance for better navigational control makes for more stable flying. As was the original, the AR.Drone 2.0 is still controlled via WiFi with an iPad, iPhone, or any tablet or smartphone with Android. The new HiDef video is fed realtime to the device screen, and recorded so you and your friends can relive the hairy moments. Better sensors allow the drone to fly higher than the original, and a new augmented reality feature recognizes shapes in its flight path and paints AR elements onto them. Talk about a real world video game.

Find the Parrot’s press release here.

At $299 MSRP, the AR.Drone 2.0 is the real drone we can afford. I didn’t get their first quadricopter, but apparently it wasn’t the easiest flyer to control. But it sounds as though the improved stability of the 2.0 makes it possible to just launch and go. When it comes out the second quarter this year, I just might.

[image credit: The Verge]
[video credit: More Unboxings via YouTube]
image: AR.Drone 2.0
video: AR.Drone 2.0

With Square Register customers sign the tab with their finger.

Makers of mobile credit card reader, Square, have taken the next logical step. Not only can your iPad become a credit card reader, it can become a cash register now too.

The fast-growing startup has developed an app, Square Register, to go along with their card reader. More than just payment processing software, Square Register offers versatility that comes with being an iPad app. Customers can pay with credit card or cash, and regular customers can leave their wallets at home and pay simply by giving their name. Merchants can organize their items by adding names, photos and prices. Customers complete the sale by signing the iPad with their finger. Unlike conventional registers, Square Register also comes with analytics that merchants can login to from anywhere and view their transaction details.

Square Register brings yet another affordable mobile payment service to “mom and pop” stores. A large part of why Square is so appealing to small businesses is that it gives them an alternative to signing contracts with major credit card companies that typically have high upfront costs and monthly fees.

Here’s Square’s video showing just how cool a cash register an iPad makes.

The mobile payment market is set to explode. Expected to grow to $600 billion by 2016, companies are scrambling to get a piece of the marketshare.

Google Checkout allowed you to make online purchases with your Google account. This past November they expanded their mobile payment capabilities by replacing Google Checkout with Google Wallet. Like your real wallet, you can pay with Google Wallet at an online store or in a real store down the street. If your local coffee shop has the right logo, you simply tap your smartphone on the logo and away goes your payment through near field communications technology. With tap-to-pay your phone is your wallet.

PayPal is also rapidly developing a digital wallet. Last month Paypal announced that customers at 2,000 Home Depot stores across the US will be able to pay with their Paypal accounts using their PayPal card, or mobile phone number with a PIN.

VISA, it's everywhere you – and your smartphone – want to be.

Wireless giants AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are also developing mobile payment services. And they’re competing with retailers themselves. Wal-Mart and Target are part of about two dozen retailers working together to come up with their own mobile payment systems independent of banks, credit card companies and technology companies.

Even Facebook is trying to incorporate payment platforms onto your Facebook page.

For their part, Square is doing its best to stay ahead of the curve against the behemoths. And they’re doing a good job. Founded in 2009, the company received $100 million from investors last June. In November billionaire Richard Branson committed a “multimillion” dollar investment to Square. Last October the company boasted $2 billion in payment processing. On March 5th Square creator and Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, Tweeted “Today we’re processing $4 billion a year.” In October 800,000 people were using Square and by December, over a million. As both a processing and organizing tool, Square Register will probably spur the company’s growing popularity even more.

PayPal’s founder, Scott Thompson, is probably right in predicting that, in just a few years, we won’t need to carry wallets anymore. Is it me, or is paying with cash more and more getting to feel old school? Especially for, say, purchases more than $10. And it’s probably only a matter of time before wallets themselves mean, somehow, for some ridiculous reason, you left your smartphone at home.

[image credits: Square and MobileMarketingWatch]
[video credit: square via YouTube]
image 1: Square Register
image 2: VISA
video: Square Register

"Strummin' on the ol' touchpad!"

Forget the cloud, here’s a new way to sync your Apple devices that’s sure to get your toes tapping – or hips swinging. Amidio Inc, makers of the popular OMGuitar have created the Futulele, a Ukulele synthesizer with which you strum with an iPad and change chords with an iPhone. It’s the perfect app for people finished with a hard day’s work and just want to kick back with a luau.

The iPad and iPhone communicate via Bluetooth. Chords can be changed with one tap while you’re playing, and since they’re not real strings, strumming’s easy, according to Futulele maker Amidio Inc. In a press release they say that the lag between chord changes is minimal and that the sound is such high quality that it “captures every little nuance of a high-grade professional Ukulele instrument.” Twelve different chords can be used for each song, and once you’ve gotten into the groove your island music creations can be recorded and shared through OMGuitar.

A ukulele-shaped jacket holds the devices together to give you a ukulele feel. The one they have now is a prototype, and they’re currently searching for a manufacturer to produce Futulele cases. They’d also like those cases to come with embedded speakers. If any Hub readers are interested you can contact Amidio here.

If the Futulele sounds awesome to you but you only have an iPad, don’t worry, the app also works with just an iPad.

Here’s a video of the Futulele accompanying Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love” – kind of. Tell me if I’m wrong, but it seems as though the music’s dubbed in. The singer’s strummin’ isn’t in sync with the Ukulele sounds. Should that be a reason for caution? I guess I’ll just wait for the reviews before I try my hand at Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

Amidio hasn’t indicated a price yet, but my guess is that it’ll be in the ballpark of OMGuitar’s $6.99. Hopefully by then they’ll have found a Futulele case with speakers. A luau just isn’t the same with headphones.

[image credits: Amidio Inc and AmidioInc via YouTube]
[video credit: AmidioInc via YouTube]
images: Futulele
video: Futulele

Mobile markets love Christmas. Smart phone activations go through the roof, and app downloads explode once the holiday season rolls around. Yet while sales boom at the end of every year, 2011′s holiday sales went off like an atomic bomb. Key indicators saw the iPhone app market up 83% from November 2010 to November 2011. 6.8 million smart phones (iOS and Android) were activated on Christmas day alone! That’s a 142% increase from last December 25th. Market analysts expect one billion app downloads to be tallied from the 25th to the first of January. This kind of growth in smart phones seems absolutely insane in isolation, but it’s part of an exponential rise in mobile devices that has continued unabated since their arrival. 2011 was the biggest year in history for smart phones, and it looks like every new year in the future will be able to say the same. Billions more people are poised to take advantage of the power of iPhone and Android devices – get ready for a global society where smart phones are absolutely everywhere.

Mobile app analysts Fiksu recently released two insightful indexes on the growth of the Apple App Store. The first is the App Store Competitive Index, which shows that not only were downloads up 15% from October ’11 to November ’11, but they were 83% greater in November ’11 than in the previous year, reaching a peak of 5.65 million downloads per day. Interestingly, Thanksgiving week didn’t seem to impact download rates. App Store customers also seemed to be more regular in their use. Fiksu’s Cost Loyal User Index shows that it cost developers who advertise through their channels about $1.43 to get someone to use an app three or more times. That figure is down four cents from October. In other words, more people are downloading iPhone apps than ever before, and they are easier to get interested in actually using those apps on a regular basis (opening them up to in-app purchases, ads, and other revenue streams).

Fiksu's App Store Competitive Index, show the number of daily downloads in the later parts of Q4 2011. Growth was 15% from October to November.

Fiksu's Loyal Customer Cost Index shows that even as download volume increased, the price to keep user attention stayed the same or even decreased slightly.

While Fiksu’s data seems reliable, it does have its limitations and bias. First, the indexes are based on the top 200 free apps on the App Store, not a study of the iOS market as a complete whole. Second, and perhaps more importantly, Fiksu is chiefly concerned with delivering new users to app developers, and their Fiksu for Mobile Apps is a platform designed  to get users to buy apps. Clearly they have some interest in showing the market booming, and getting cheaper. Still, their platform has reportedly monitored 7.6 billion mobile app actions, including 156 million downloads. And they aren’t the only name in the game that’s singing the same song.

Flurry, another mobile analyst and advertising agency, tracks market activity through 140k+ copies of their app running on iOS and Android devices. They saw marked increases in downloads through the holiday shopping season, with Christmas Eve and Christmas showing incredible boosts in sales. 6.8 million smart phones were activated in that period, up from 2.8 million in 2010. Andy Rubin, Senior VP of Mobile at Google backed up those numbers, tweeting that Android devices alone saw 3.7 million activations in those two days. The 142% increase from last year is astounding, showing a strong growth in the smart phone market that is matched by app downloads. The Apple App Store hit 10 billion total downloads in January of 2011, and Flurry thinks they’ll hit 20 billion total in January 2012. That’s ten billion downloads in a single year, double what was seen in the two year span from ’08 to ’10. Android market hit 3 billion total downloads in May 2011, and may have already reached 10 billion total by December 2011. While only half the total size of Apple, Android is clearly expanding nearly as quickly, if not more so. Flurry expects that smart phone downloads (for iOS and Android combined) will reach one billion just in the time between December 25th and January 1st. The exponential growth in the smart phone market is clear.

Flurry's data details the explosive Christmas boom seen this year in the mobile app and smart phone market.

The potential for it to continue growing is vast. Flurry looked at the number of active iOS and Android users, and then worked to estimate how many more users might join in the near future. They combined their data on the mobile market with projections from the International Monetary Fund, the CIA world fact book and various other economic models including a study by Miller-McCune. Their results (shown in the graphs below) reveal a huge near term potential market for smart phones that far exceeds current use. And these estimates are conservative – only including adults with adequate income below the age of 64. To grossly summarize: the adressable market for iPhone and Android apps is ready to grow by hundreds of millions. There are 109 million regular smart phone users in the US, but Flurry estimates there are 91 million more to be tapped in that nation alone. China has an additional 122 million. People who could potentially buy these devices and download apps today. The world is far from saturation, which means the exponential growth seen in this market is likely to continue.

By Flurry's estimates, the number of current iOS and Android users is exceeded by those financially capable of buying those devices, showing that the room for continued growth is large.

Current users appear as dark circles, total addressable market as light blue. Those countries towards the right are more saturated. While India has nearly the population of China, China has the much stronger middle class which is reflected in the size of their addressable markets. Mobile phones are nearly ubiquitous in Japan, but not iOS or Android devices., explaining their room for growth. Even the most penetrated markets show potential for large gains in the near term.

The rapid deployment and adoption of mobile phones around the globe has been well documented and discussed before, and futurists like Ray Kurzweil point to that phenomenon as evidence of the exponential speed at which information technology is evolving and spreading. Yet smart phones, with a development ecosystem that provides rapid response to consumer demand and greatly expands the scope and capabilities of phones, have yet to become a dominant platform for the mobile market. The trends followed by Fiksu and Flurry hint that this is changing. Rapidly. The app market is exploding for iOS and Android. By some estimates, the global middle class as it stands today is 1.8 billion people. With clear advantages over their competitors, iPhone and Android are ready to spread through that population like a virus.

But that’s just the high end of app-enabling mobile devices. There are much cheaper smart phones in Africa, and an absurdly cheap tablet in India, each with their own app markets. When considering these lower cost options alongside the expected growth of iOS and Android, the conclusions seem simple: Apps are the way of the future, not just for the West, but for the world. In just a few years, from Shanghai to San Francisco, from farmers to footballers, the smart phone (or tablet) could be the device that rides in all our pockets, and with it will come quick language translations, GPS-enabled digital maps, medical assistance, e-commerce, social media and so much more. The world will fit in everyone’s hands.

[image credit: Minnesota Historical Society (via WikiCommons, modified), Fiksu, Flurry Blog]
[sources: Fiksu, Flurry Blog]

Scanadu's Medical Tricorder works with your smartphone to takes vitals and diagnose disease non-invasively and at home.

Star Trek fans rejoice, the Tricorder is here.

Medical tech startup Scanadu has created a scanner that appears to have been inspired by those of Drs. McCoy and Crusher. The ‘Medical Tricorder’ scanner can take vitals such as blood pressure, pulmonary function, and temperature, and sends them to your smartphone. The device can make the difference between a needed trip to the emergency room or a waste of time and money for conditions that don’t need treatment.

The company just raised $2 million in funding from a group of investors that includes Sebastien De Halleux, co-founder of social network game maker Playfish. The money’s an impressive accomplishment considering Scanadu isn’t even a year old. Founded in January 2011, the company is staffed with a team of visionaries like Walter De Brouwer. The Belgian futurist co-founded Starlab in 1996 with MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte. He first got the idea for the Tricorder while at Starlab but the technology wasn’t mature enough at the time. In 2006 his son was in a serious accident and hospitalized for three months. De Brouwer again got to thinking about leveraging technology to empower people by allowing them to auto-diagnose and make informed decisions concerning health.

De Brouwer is joined by fellow futurist Daniel Kraft, a physician-scientist who chairs the FutureMed program at Singularity University. Kraft gave a TED talk this past June entitled “Medicine’s future? There’s an app for that.” He drives the main point behind Scanadu’s philosophy that today’s health care needs to catch up to the tools it’s surrounded by. As co-founder and COO Misha Chellam said in a press release, we can do a lot better than the thermometer and band-aids in our medicine cabinets.

In its early days, Scanadu is targeting the Tricorder to parents who want to monitor their children’s health better. Watch the company’s trailer to get an idea how it might work.

Scanadu’s diagnostic scanner is being entered into the Tricorder X PRIZE, a $10 million competition launched this past May to develop mobile diagnostic technologies. Their goal is to put health information directly in the hands of “health consumers.” The competing Tricorders will be up against a panel of doctors to see if they can match the doctors in diagnosing an array of diseases.

Wireless technologies are revolutionizing medicine. Wearable scanners that give patients and doctors health information is expected to reach 80 million by 2016, according to ABI Research. The smartphone is already being used to read our glucose levels, check for sexually transmitted diseases, read a digital stethoscope, and give a doctor access to patient medical records. Earlier this year the FDA approved an app that allows doctors to view images from MRI, CT and PET scans on their iPad or iPhone. One company is working on a pacemaker smaller than a penny that will communicate wirelessly to a smartphone. There are even virtual clinics appearing in your corner drug store where you can dial up a doc if you have questions about a medication or condition.

The ‘Tricorder’ that wins the X PRIZE will add yet another tool to our augmented medical reality. Of course, these tools are not meant to replace doctors but to improve how both doctors and patients manage health. It’ll probably take a while for people to learn to trust the Tricorders, as it should. I can totally see parents ignoring “Get rest” and taking a trip in to see the doctor anyway. Until the Tricorders have a proven track record, people will probably head over to sick bay just in case.

[image credit: Scanadu]
[video credit: IvoClarysse via YouTube]
images: Scanadu
video: Scanadu

The open source platform allows users to come up with their own apps, such as the devious "Spy Robot App."

How awesome is Romo the Smartphone Robot? Without knowing anything about it, you simply have to look at the robot’s Kickstarter page. The pledge goal was $32,000. The robot has raised $114,796.

I’d say these guys are on to something.

The guys – Peter Seid and Phu Nguyen – have turned your smartphone into a robot. They’ve built a robotics platform that uses a smartphone for a brain to control a mobile, two-track base. Just attach your smartphone to the base, plug a cord into the earphone jack, download the apps, and using another smartphone, iPad, or computer to control it – you’ve got a robot! The guys are only just getting started, but already they’ve made a “Spy Robot” app that allows you to drive Romo around while seeing the world through the smartphone camera. It can track objects with a color tracking app. Another app turns Romo into a doodler. Just make your drawing on the smartphone touchscreen and Romo follows the pattern, driving around and turning your pixel drawing into a real one. You can also have a conversation with Romo, which makes sense since it has a phone for a head.

Seid and Nguyen’s genius was to recognize that you don’t have to build a robot from the ground up. With their self-admitted nerdyness, the two longed to create a functional robot but without the millions of dollars it takes to create the beast that is Honda’s Asimo, they recognized that supercomputer robotic brains had already been built that are cheap and are everywhere. They built Romo and founded the company Romotive to build more.

The beauty of having a smartphone for a brain is that it is limited only by its apps. Seid and Nguyen, and the growing number of Romo users, are hard at work coming up with new applications, which means the sky’s the limit. They encourage hackers to take Romo apart, to find new ways to interface the smartphone and hardware. And they’re working on an SDK of their own that will run on iOS and Android to make programming easier and more flexible. A forum on their website provides a place where hackers can share their innovations with others. Given the obvious enthusiasm, I see their apps library growing quickly, becoming the smartphone equivalent to the Robot Operating System applications library for robots. Yet another example of the power of open source.

Just $78 gets you a Romo (smartphone not included, duh). An iPod Touch can also be used with the platform. Controls are sent over Wi-Fi, so you can potentially play with Romo over half a world away.

Romo isn’t the first robot to use a smartphone for a brain. iRobot’s AVA turns smartphones, tablets or notebooks into mobile robots. With laser range finders and accelerometers and other major league hardware, AVA’s obviously the superior telepresence robot. But Romo’s our robot, the one we can actually get our hands on and program. Smartphones were already awesome, but Romo takes them to a whole new level. And now that Romotive has got some serious startup funds, the mobile robot could very soon leave your brand new 4S in the dust.

[image credits: Kickstarter]
[video credits: phanloc23291 via YouTube]
images: Romo
video: Romo

That 'discarded' piece of tupperware near your campsite might just have a logbook in it.

You might not be aware, but there could be a hidden treasure very close to you. And someone’s probably coming to find it. No, not gold bullion from a long lost pirate booty but more a treasure of trinkets long lost in someone’s attic. Geocaching is a decade-old game that combines the relatively new GPS technology with the age-old thrill of treasure hunting. In ten years, what started out as one person’s experiment has exploded into a hobby played by over five million people in over 100 countries and on all seven continents – yes, even Antarctica.

It was May 1st, 2000 when President Bill Clinton predestined a generation of the would-be geocachers. At the time GPS, a US Department of Defense creation, was thought of as a government tool primarily, and a civilian tool secondarily. The first GPS devices offered to civilians were intentionally scrambled to decrease their resolution. When President Clinton turned off the scrambling program – called Selective Availability – civilian GPS devices went from an accuracy of about 100 meters to about 10 meters. Two days later Dave Ulmer, a computer consultant of Beavercreek, Oregon, hid a bucket containing a few trinkets including a slingshot and, optimistically, a logbook. He posted the container’s location to a USENET newsgroup – coordinates 45°17.460´N 122°24.800´W – and called it “The Great American GPS Stash Hunt.” Then he sat back and waited to see if anyone would take the trouble. On the post he specified only one rule: “Get some Stuff, Leave some Stuff!!”

The stash was found within a day. A man by the name of Mike Teague from Vancouver, Washington had wasted no time in finding the Stuff and logging the find on the website. He further demonstrated his enthusiasm for the new game on May 8th by starting a cache logging website. Soon a mailing list was started that grew as the number of half-buried, trinket-storing containers grew. On May 30th the participants of The Great American GPS Stash Hunt decided that they weren’t comfortable romping through the woods looking for a “stash.” They started calling their hidden treasures geocaches.

Ten years after Ulmer’s first geocache 5 million geocachers around the world have logged more than 1.3 million caches on multiple websites. When the hobby celebrated its 10th anniversary last year there were nearly 600 separate commemorative events on six different continents – geocaching on Antarctica is one thing, partying there is another. More than 350 of those events were in the US. Geocaching has been covered by tons of local and online media and a few major ones. The Washington Post recently ran a TechCrunch article about the GeoMate Jr., a GPS device made simple so that five year olds with geocaching aspirations can join the fun. Much of the time, however, the hobby makes headlines because some non-geoacher mistook an oddly-placed ammo box of trinkets as something dangerous. Go figure.

So what’s so interesting about finding a slingshot? PRNewswire quotes Bryan Roth, one of the co-founders of geocaching.com, the global online headquarters: “People love treasure hunts. Just look at the popularity of the ‘Pirates of the Carribean’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ movies. …we’re able to deliver treasure hunting to everyone in a way that combines technology, outdoor recreation and a global community.” And, with a one-time cost of the GPS at about $100 it’s about as cheap as hobbies come. Says Roth, “Geocaching is accessible to everyone.” It gets even cheaper if you have an iPhone and maybe even more fun. The Geocaching app costs just $10 and locates the nearest geocache wherever you are with the push of a button.

The following video is a great illustration of the passion of geocachers. As they explain, a key joy is to simply get out and explore where you live.

Curious to know how close you are right now to a geocache? I was, so I registered on geocaching.com (it’s free). I was a little dubious, given the fact that I live in downtown Baltimore. The place doesn’t exactly conjure images of people with backpacks and hiking boots playing GPS-based games. To my surprise I discovered that there are ten geocaches within a mile of my home! And the nearest one just happens to be hidden in the same building in which I defended my thesis: Davidge Hall. One of the really neat things about geocaching is that it’s not always a simple matter of finding the objects and signing the logbook. Whoever places the geocache there will often take the time to write a blurb about the location. Davidge Hall is an historic building. It was built in 1807 as the original University of Maryland Medical School. The blurb on geocaching.com describes some of its history, including the bit of folklore that us locals are familiar with: how early educators took to hiding cadavers in whiskey barrels so as to not anger the mobs who didn’t quite accept human dissection just yet. A log shows that 107 people have found the Davidge Hall geocache since it was hidden April of 2010 – twenty-four unlucky people could not. The geocachers post comments to the online site, mainly how long it took them to locate their target (one person snooped around for 90 minutes before finding it – that’s dedication to the sport!). Pictures are quite common too.

Virtual caches is about discovering a location – such as McMurdo Station in Antarctica – rather than a container.

In the time since that first hide geocaching has evolved to include over a dozen different geocache types. To spice things up, organizers have come up with a multi-cache that include a series of locations, the final one being the container with the trinkets. Another example is the mystery cache in which you have to solve a puzzle to get the coordinates. They even have a Project A.P.E. cache that was placed in 2001 to celebrate the “Planet of the Apes” movie release. “Each cache represented a fictional story in which scientists revealed an Alternative Primate Evolution.”

Um, okay.

My favorite are the Trackables. They’re tags that you attach to the geocache, which is now referred to as a “hitchhiker.” Each trackable tag has a goal set by its owner, such as to “visit every country in Europe or travel from coast to coast.” When they’re found the hitchhiker and its trackable are collected and, if it’s lucky, moved to another geocache location that’s closer to its goal. Kind of like the “Where is George?” tracking site for one dollar bills, geocachers can check back to see how far their little plastic friend has traveled.

Connecting people through technology is nothing new, but combining online and real world activities is a big part of why geocaching and other location-based social technologies such as Foursquare appeal to so many. It’s nice to have technology urge us outdoors for once rather than tie us to our computers. It’s clear after a decade of steady growth this less-known hobby won’t stay hidden for very long.

[image credits: gpspersonalnavigation.com and wikipedia]
[video credit: GoGeocaching via YouTube]
image 1: geocacher
image 2: McMurdo
video: Language of Location

A green app for your smartphone allows you to monitor household energy use in realtime.

Knowledge is power. And if you have People Power 1.0, People Power’s new mobile Energy Services Platform, you can use knowledge to save power – and money. People Power 1.0 is an open and extensible cloud-based platform that allows you to monitor up-to-the-minute household energy usage from an iPhone or Android smartphone. The user interface dashboards can be configured to display energy usage in kilowatts per hour or in terms of the local currency. Energy use can be displayed by day, month or year, and energy usage between any two time points in the storage history can be compared. A budget feature also allows you to set targets against which to compare ongoing usage.

Data is transmitted from gateway devices provided by partners Blue Line and TED or People Power’s own GreenX Hub and GreenX Powerstrip devices. Blue Line’s PowerCost Monitor WiFi Gateway attaches to the power box and visually reads the dials. It works through your house router to connect to the Internet and send data to your smartphone. Or you can measure energy consumption from individual devices with People Power’s GreenX Powerstrips.

Because we’re addicted to Facebook and (maybe soon?) Google+, People Power 1.0 has a social network feature to help you save energy too. You can compare household or business energy use with others in your area – or country or world, if you like – and exchange energy-saving tips. An Energy Quiz tests the extent of your green knowledge and schools you at the same time. The quiz is also socialized. You can compete with friends (there’s a leaderboard) and post your quiz scores to Facebook.

People Power 1.0 is the company’s solution to a society that wants to go green but wants an easy way to do it. The platform is free and you can get the Blue Line Innovations PowerCost Monitor and WiFi Gateway bundle for about $150. It’s an overhead that’s justified only if you save as much money through decreased energy use. People Power is currently conducting a trial with the City of Palo Alto Utilities to see just how empowering their green technology is. At any rate, it’s certainly cheaper than retrofitting with the type of monitoring in a Panasonic Smart Town home.

Part of the growing Internet of Things, People Power 1.0 brings energy monitoring to the common household. Apparently, doing so is not as a straightforward as it might seem. Both Microsoft’s Hohm and Google’s PowerMeter systems have run out of juice. Microsoft cites slow adoption by the public. Seems we’re stubbornly sticking to simply making sure the lights are off before we go to bed. It’ll probably take trials like the one in Palo Alto and much talk of how much money the Smiths saved last month before people begin actively seeking out these types of energy saving technologies.

iBrain can record brainwaves and send them wirelessly to a desktop computer...or a cell phone.

A new brain recording device is changing the way scientists study the brain. Its miniature size and innovative recording capabilities allow data to be transmitted directly to a computer while we’re asleep at home. Understanding brain activity during sleep, researchers think, may unlock the secrets to understanding a range of neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and depression. The new device is such a significant improvement over existing technologies that it has attracted private funding that raises the company valuation to $250 million–from a technology pioneer who wishes to remain anonymous.

Philip Low was a graduate student at the Salk Institute, working towards a PhD studying brain activity during sleep. He’d chosen Salk upon the recommendation of Francis Crick of Watson and Crick DNA fame. From this auspicious start, Low joined the Computational Neurobiology Lab at Salk where he discovered a fundamentally new way to assess brain activity.

Measuring brainwaves during sleep normally entails electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. These types of recordings are made by placing a number of disc-shaped electrodes around the scalp–you’ve probably seen pictures of them and thought of a shower cap with a bunch of nodes sticking out. The problem with this setup when conducting sleep research is that each of the nodes–often 16 or more–have wires attached to them. All of the wires and the bumps on your head make for a tough night’s rest, leaving both the subject and the researchers to suffer. Low got around this by developing an EEG cap that has only a single node. His head harness is lightweight and secures only a single, small box to the head. Better yet, the system is wireless.

Reducing an EEG cap to a single channel is no small feat. The reason so many electrodes are used to record EEGs is to make 3D mapping of the signals easier. A recorded brainwave isn’t interesting unless you know what part of the brain from which it originates. By recording the same signal with multiple electrodes researchers are able to triangulate the location of that signal’s origin. Watch Low use iBrain to monitor his own brain activity in the video below.

So how does Low’s single electrode determine a signal’s location without any other reference points with which it can compare? Math. Lot’s of math.

Not only did Low invent a single electrode EEG cap, he invented software that receives the data and, using an algorithm that Low computed himself, can tease apart the multitude of EEG signals from the entire brain and map them back in 3D space. Sound complicated? The algorithm that Low came up with is half a million lines.

I admit I haven’t had the time to look at the actual algorithm (you can laugh) so I can’t tell you anything more about its mapping function. But I’ll bet you $250 million it works.

What’s more, Low’s algorithm quadruples the amount of useful data compared to conventional EEGs, and it also takes out the grunt work of analyzing that data. Typical EEG analysis requires researchers to visually review the data coming in from the multiple electrodes and process it manually. Low’s algorithm automates the data analysis process so researchers don’t have to lift a brain muscle. In a head-to-head comparison (get it?), the algorithm was more accurate than manual methods at analyzing a night’s worth of data and cut the job time down from 30-60 minutes to just a few seconds.

NeuroVigil founder Philip Low. His iBrain EEG scanner makes regular and long-term use much more feasible than with conventional EEGs.

Imagine, your graduate student can actually take the weekend off.

But even as a graduate student himself Low had bigger plans for his single-channel EEG system and its algorithm than making sleep research easier for himself and his colleagues. In 2007, the year he defended his thesis, Low founded a company to develop his inventions. The company is called NeuroVigil, the single-channel EEG has become iBrain, and the software he named SPEARS (Sleep Parametric EEG Automated Recognition System Algorithm).

Overachiever? For all that work he summed it up in a one-page thesis (I might add, though, that the appendix was 350+ pages).

I know what you’re thinking. Today, Dr. Low is 31 years old.

Nowadays Low is hard at work developing his iBrain with the hopes that the device will one day be used to diagnose neurological disorders. Low points out that 70 million people in the US have sleep disorders but only 4 million have had sleep tests. By enabling the patient to perform their own recordings in their own homes, the sleeper-friendly iBrain could be used to diagnose many people with sleep disorders who don’t want to have a sleepover at the hospital.

But the iBrain won’t be used solely for the benefit of people with sleep disorders. Many researchers are currently investigating how sleep disorders are linked to a number of neurological conditions. This is a complex question. The changes in the brain that lead to Alzheimer’s disease, for example, and also to sleep disorders are not known. Low hypothesizes however that sleeping disorders brought on in Alzheimer’s patients will be due to the same underlying biological malfunction. He reasons that if the disease and the sleeping disorder are related in the same way among patients, then recording brain activity while the patients sleep might turn up unique patterns of activity present in the their brains but not in the brains of normal individuals. If it turns out that unique activity signatures are indeed there, then people could detect onset of a disease by regularly monitoring their brain activity while they sleep. Low hopes to apply this approach to help detect other neurological disorders associated with sleep disorders, including depression, Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia.

That’s a big “if” though, given the fact that a biological link between these diseases and sleeping disorders is far from proven. Low however, not easily deterred, aims to find the link if there is one.

Aside from its smaller size and lack of wires, the iBrain differs from conventional EEGs in that it doesn’t require a special computer or program to collect its data. Perhaps with such a study in mind, Dr. Low made the iBrain’s EEG data compatible with desktop computers and even cell phones. People with disorders of all types, from all over the world can strap on an iBrain and collect brainwave patterns immediately on their cell phones or computers. After the data’s collected they would send it to NeuroVigil for analysis. It’s here that the iBrain’s ease of use comes in big. Its accessibility may just allow Low to recruit enough participants to find those disease signatures, if they do in fact exist.

Of course, as with conventional EEG, the iBrain is not limited to the study of brain phenomena related to sleep. iBrain is already being used in clinical trials to document potential signatures of pre-market drugs on the brain. Here again the ease with which iBrain can collect data on a regular basis and over a long period of time makes EEG amenable to applications not previously feasible with conventional EEG.

Philip Low appears to be one of those rare minds that is both brilliant and unstoppable. He is an inventor, an entrepreneur, a professor with appointments at both Stanford and MIT.

He is a young man who’s not hard to believe in. And someone certainly does believes in him, although he won’t tell us who he is just yet. According to NeuroVigil, the funding put forth by this “anonymous American industrialist and technology visionary” is “twice the combined seed valuations of Google’s and Facebook’s first rounds.” Accounting for a listed 2% of NeuoVigil’s stock, the series A funding is probably around $5 million. It’s not hard to guess that the top speculations for the mystery investor are Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Google’s Sergey Brin.

Whoever it is, I just hope they can keep up with Dr. Low.

[image credits: NeuroVigil and LaJolla Light]
[video credit: neurovigil via youtube]
image 1: iBrain
image 2: Philip Low

The microNMR-smartphone system - a tool for rapid and accurate cancer screening

If you’re a smartphone naysayer, here’s some news that might make you drink the Kool-Aid along with nearly half of Americans: of the 652 app applications submitted just to Apple every day, an increasing number of healthcare-related apps are starting to trickle in that could actually help save lives. An exciting example comes from the scientists at the Center for Systems Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital that have knocked it out of the park by integrating a microNMR device that accurately detects cancer cells to a smartphone. Though just a prototype, this device enables a clinician to extract small amounts of cells from a mass inside of a patient, analyze the sample on the spot, acquire the results in an hour, and pass the results to other clinicians and into medical records rapidly. How much does the device cost to make? $200. Seriously, smartphones just got their own Samuel L. Jackson-esque wallet.

Considering that more than 1,500 Americans a day will die of cancer according to the American Cancer Society, which translates into almost 1 in 4 deaths, oncologists have needed a rapid, minimally intrusive, and accurate method for cancer screening for a long time. The beauty of the microNMR device is that it solves a handful of problems that plague current cancer screening methods starting with the risks involved in biopsying tissue. If a suspicious lump is found through a mammogram or a colonoscopy, there is no way to be certain if it’s malignant or benign without testing the tissue directly. In some cases, the patient has to undergo surgery just to have a sufficient amount of tissue removed for testing. But in other cases, a needle biopsy can be performed, which involves inserting a needle into the mass and extracting a small amount of cells. Some doctors and patients are wary of biopsies because of the risks versus the benefits, especially if a biopsy is being repeated due to an inconclusive result. But one of the main reasons cancer rates in the US have been dropping for years is early detection. In fact, early detection is known to lower mortality rates in breast, colon, rectal, and cervical cancer. Ideally, screening of a suspicious lump should involve the least invasive method possible that would produce accurate results, which would ultimately lower hesitations by doctors or patients to test.

The microNMR device uses very minimal amounts of tissue, approximately 4,000 cells, which is acquired using fine needles that are minimally invasive. Small amounts of cells can be tested because of the various technologies within the microNMR. Back in 2000, the group reported the development of magnetic nanoparticles connected to ligands. When small amounts of the ligands bind to proteins inside of cells, the nanoparticles assemble together and become visible using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Building on this work, by 2008, they had developed a miniaturized system the size of a coffee mug that allowed for rapid and accurate measurements. This system utilizes a small magnet and microcoil array to create a miniaturized nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) device, a technique that has literally transformed chemistry and molecular biology. Samples for testing are delivered to this microNMR chip via another success story in modern science, low-cost easily fabricated microfluidic systems.

By integrating these components together, the microNMR is an awesome device in its own right, but it also solves another screening dilemma: rapid and accurate analysis. Unfortunately, modern biopsy analysis has an 84 percent accuracy rate and can take three to four days to produce results. Furthermore, tissue can degrade during transport to an external testing site and current immunohistochemistry methods can produce false positives. In their latest report, the researchers describe how they addressed these issues by connecting the microNMR to a smartphone for data analysis. This allows a clinician to extract cells from the patient and analyze them immediately rather than sending them away for testing. Through trial and error, the researchers identified four cancer marker proteins that would serve as a screening panel. The result? The system detects cancerous cells from freshly acquired patient samples in an hour with an accuracy of 96 percent in one trial and 100 percent in another across a range of cancer types.

Nanoparticle-linked ligands bound to proteins pass through the microNMR for analysis

Bridging the microNMR with a smartphone allows the researchers to address the problems of convenient visualization and communication of the results by wisely capitalizing on a technology that many doctors and nurses are already comfortable with. Many medical devices that have their own displays and data handling require training for that particular device. The data output may also be awkward or indecipherable and record keeping may not be convenient. However, as smartphones are intuitive devices and their platforms allow for an easy way to visualize data, training is significantly reduced and data is more accessible. This means that instead of doctors just telling patients, “You have cancer,” they can actually review the data with them on the handheld device.  The results can also be immediately transmitted to other doctors or into patient records without worrying about compatibility issues.

Together, this device holds an enormous potential for changing the experience of finding out that you have cancer. Imagine your doctor finds a suspicious lump in your body and schedules you for a biopsy. First, you have to undergo surgery to have a sample removed. Then you face anxiety-filled days as the result looms in your mind. Finally, you get the phone call: if it’s negative, you have a huge sigh of relief though you may feel exhausted over the worrisome ordeal. If it’s positive, you now have to schedule an appointment to see your doctor to discuss plans moving forward. Those can be excruciating days of uncertainty as the result hangs like a death sentence for you, family and friends. Now contrast this scenario with one that the microNMR device may someday make possible: a suspicious lump is found, a clinician inserts a small needle into the site on your body, and you sit in the waiting room for about an hour. You’re called in and your doctor uses a smartphone to show you all the results of the test. If it’s negative, you walk out of the office and put cancer out of your mind. If it’s positive, you can immediately discuss a game plan and treatment options with your doctor. Emotionally, that is a world of difference.

The next decade may very well go down as the decade of the smartphone, but it’s comforting to know that it may be due to more than just texting, gaming, and watching YouTube. With an increasing number of healthcare-related apps, smartphones have the potential to bridge the gap between doctors and patients through convenient and rapid access to medical data. We’ve already highlighted health-related apps that will measure blood-sugar levels and monitor vital signs, but some new apps are aimed at helping doctors by interfacing with medical devices where the smartphone becomes the tool for data handling, visualization, and communication. Devices like the microNMR, the digital stethoscope, and another app that changes a smartphone into a skin cancer screening tool promise to make smartphones revolutionary platforms that improve medicine for both clinicians and patients.

To see a video that features Dr. Ralph Weissleder, the principal investigator for the microNMR, discussing molecular imaging, check out this 2008 video:

[Image source: Center for Systems Biology]

[Sources: American Cancer Society, Center for Systems Biology, Nature, Science Translational Medicine]

I promise, you won't look like a Borg if you wear this.

Do your friends complain that you can’t pull your eyes away from your iPhone? Well, if you get the new XWave by PLX Devices, then you might have trouble pulling your brain away, too. The peripheral, released in November for $99, brings an EEG-based brain-computer interface (BCI) to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users at an affordable price. Based on NeuroSky’s Mindset, XWave gives you the power to manipulate various apps with brain rhythms. While you can’t text or browse the web with it yet, the XWave represents an important step in bringing BCI to the masses. Also, with the falling cost and increasing spatial resolution of brain-imaging technology, it’s exciting to ponder what powerful BCI devices we’ll be able to get for $99 in the future.

Similar to other products based on the NeuroSky Mindset, the XWave applies an algorithm to your brain rhythms to convert them to meditation and attention values. If your rating in either of these categories is high enough, you can manipulate variables on the screen. Previous applications of this technology have been computer games, toys, and even youth Jedi training. While BCI for the consumer market is nothing new, XWave is the first device that combines NeuroSky technology with a widely adopted platform, opening the door to large scale exposure to BCI. Also, it has some cool apps to boot.

For those new to NeuroSky, there’s a starter app called XWave. It takes a little practice to get in sync with your brainwaves, so this app instills the basic neurophysiological skill set required to excel in XWave’s other programs. People have expressed difficulty getting used to the NeuroSky system in the past, so this app is a must.

In the video below is an example of the visualizer you would see on the standard XWave app. On the left is a graphical representation of brain waves with the color and shape changing depending on which rhythms and frequencies you’re projecting at any given moment. The top-right corner shows the frequency distribution derived from the EEG signal, which is concurrently side-scrolling in the background. Finally there’s the attention and meditation ratings that look like two little speedometers. When either of these are above 90, the meter starts flashing, indicating that your neuro-cognitive powers have peaked. It definitely beats trying to interpret EEG signals on your own, and it’s a lot prettier, too.

To help build your neural resiliency, there’s the Tug of Mind developed by MindGames, LLC. You can take a picture and record the voice of an actual person (friend or worst enemy), and the app renders a digital representation. As the 3D face goes through various threatening facial expressions and sounds, the app measures your meditation and attention to see if you can keep your cool. Feeling stressed out by a co-worker? Maybe try this app, and let your anxiety melt away in the face of your adversary’s harmless 3D rendering. With minor tweaks, I could see this app being used to instill anti-bullying strategies in children. It couldn’t be any less effective than these tactics.

Lastly, there’s XWave Tunes which encodes songs from your music library with your brain wave signature. The app records your meditation and attention values during playback, and searches for people who have emitted similar brain rhythms to that song or genre. The goal is to find your soul mate through music and a brain connection. Hey, maybe one day listening to Justin Bieber will produce a delta rhythm that syncs with your yet to be discovered soul mate on the subway, leading to a lifelong relationship. I’m sure it’s better than some dating websites. Of course, this app is only functional if there are a lot of XWavers out there.

This first round of apps for the XWave are nifty. However, many will point out, “Yeah, it’s neat, but it’s just a toy.” There are also those who question the device’s practicality. Indeed, compared to the powerful experimental BCI demonstrated by Miguel Nicolelis and the consumer BCI developed by Tan Le, the XWave is a little lackluster. There is only one electrode on NeuroSky’s Mindset (the Emotiv EPOC has 14), and there is no saline gel bridging the electrodes to the skull, leading to noise in the EEG signal. While this adds to the XWave’s user friendliness, it compromises the signal resolution and diminishes the headset’s potential applications. There are also the inherent problems of using EEG, which relies on global brain patterns for the signal. This establishes an upper limit to the device’s utility.

Spatial and temporal resolution of brain imaging. Will we ever get to the bottom-left corner for $99?

But so what if it is just a toy? So what if you can’t text with it (although, this might not be too far off)? Aside from logistical concerns, this device is a milestone. Arguably, no other BCI device has been so accessible to such a wide audience. It’s under a hundred bucks, and millions own the Apple devices that serve as XWave’s platform. There could be innovative apps along the way that will blow up, and according to a sales rep at PLX, a version for Android-based phones is imminent. Along with other toys based on the NeuroSky headset, XWave may help infuse the idea of BCI into the public consciousness. Let’s not forget the Commodore 64 was primarily marketed as a video game console. Combined with the impact of the Macintosh, this “toy” allowed consumers to get comfortable with the idea of letting a computer into their home in the 1980s. In the case of XWave, Apple is once again a partner, but the destination is not the domicile. It’s the dome.

[Image Credits: PLX Devices, The Student's Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience (modified)]

[Video Credits: NeuroSky, MindGames LLC]

[Sources: PLX Devices, NeuroSky, Tech News Daily]

Word Lens is augmented reality text translation. Welcome to the future.

Another part of the universal translator has fallen into place. Quest Visual recently released Word Lens, a killer iPhone app that lets you see the world around you translated into a new language. It’s a great example of augmented reality: images from the camera are screened for words; Word Lens then translates those words into a different language, and displays the translation on your screen replacing the original text. It’s like looking through a window into another world where everyone writes in the language you choose. The Word Lens App works for iPhone 4, iPhone 3Gs, iPod Touch 4 and is free to download. Language packets, however, will cost you $5, and currently Spanish to English and English to Spanish are the only ones available. Still, Word Lens is amazing to watch in action, as you can see in the announcement video from Quest Visual below. I recently downloaded Word Lens and tried out the free demo “languages” (text reversal and removal). The app is fairly limited right now, but it holds enormous promise.

Once you download the free demo onto your iPhone, it’s really simple to get Word Lens started. Just tap on the icon and you’re instantly in a window that is sampling from your camera and changing the letters you see. You can pause the video feed, select a region, even zoom in or turn on the light if you want (iPhone 4 only). Unlock the rotation icon and you can easily view things in landscape mode. With a little practice you can get Word Lens to find and change text all around. Billboards, gum wrappers, computer screens, you name it. When it works well this application is an absolute killer.

Quest Visual is the brainchild of Octavio Good and John DeWeese, who have been working on the Word Lens application for more than two years. Word Lens uses optical character recognition to find words in your smart phone’s video feed. OCR works best with clear legible fonts, and really can’t handle script or many words written by hand. It also can be hit or miss in even detecting which figure is a letter and which is part of a background design. Working with the free demo I constantly had to move the phone back and forth, or slightly rotate it in order to get Word Lens to find the words I wanted it to recognize. Octavio Good admits that this early form of the App has its limitations in the following video, but he promises that there will be more languages and improvements ahead.

When I see an idea like Word Lens I am both thrilled by the possibility and slightly disappointed by the reality. Word Lens absolutely is an amazing App when it works well. It crops out text, and replaces it with an easy to read font, and it does it all in real time. That’s awesome. But the OCR has its limits, as I just said, and the dictionaries they use are far from perfect as well. I’m not sure how I feel about Quest Visual deciding to use downloaded dictionaries rather than a Google API or other cloud-based service. Having all the necessary content on your phone probably makes things quicker, and it will definitely help in all those locations where AT&T reception is poor (pretty much everywhere). Still, I’d rather have a startup like Quest Visual focus on one task and perform it very well. The OCR based augmented reality is enough to deal with and needs lots of fine tuning. Does Quest Visual really need to split their focus by worrying about their incorporated translation software as well? I’m not sure how I feel about the $5 per translation packet either. Prices will go up to $10 on January 1st. That’s still a fairly good deal, but only if Quest Visual can continue to improve the quality of their product.

+10 points for good OCR, -100 points for bad translation. **UPDATE: As pointed out in the comments, this is actually an OCR mistake: confusing the "lt" for an 'n'. "Apunta muy ano" would mean "points very anus."**

For now, Word Lens is fairly unique among iPhone Apps for what it can do. (There is a related feature in Google Goggles that let’s you translate a photo, but that’s not real time like Word Lens.) That means that Quest Visual is pioneering new ground. We should expect some more bumps along their journey even as they make more amazing progress. In the end great technology like this is bound for one of three destinies. It could get bought by a larger developer (as Google did with BlindType), it could continue to grow on its own like FourSquare, or it could be replaced by competitors who improve upon their design (MySpace). I wish Good, DeWeese, and the rest of the Quest Visual team the best, and I’m really impressed by their work. That being said, I’m not sure which of the potential destinies for Word Lens will actually be most beneficial for end users like you and I.

Over the last two years we’ve seen the parts of a universal translator slowly arrive. Audio translators let you speak in one language and have your smart phone speak in another. Automatic text translations are becoming more ubiquitous online. Apps like Word Lens would be the next piece in the puzzle. Some time soon we should have the means to make real time translations from any form of input. That’s very exciting. It would be wonderful if Quest Visual was part of that process. Even if they are not, now that they’ve shown us what their piece of the universal translator puzzle looks like we are sure to have it the linguistic arsenal of the future. We’re getting closer to a world without language borders. I can’t wait.

[image credits: Jacqui Cheng/ArsTechnica]
[video credits: Quest Visual]
[sources: Quest Visual, ArsTechnica]

Walk in the real world, drive a light cycle in the virtual world.

I’ve crashed my motorcycle dozens of times in the past few days. Don’t worry, it’s virtual. Coke Zero has teamed up with the upcoming TRON: Legacy movie and created a fun new smart phone app that puts you in command of your own light cycle. I had a chance to play a beta version a few days before its recent release on iPhone and Android. The free app, LiveCycle, is a strange mixture of reality and virtual gaming. On your screen is the standard virtual bike leaving behind a wall of light that you try to get opponents to crash into while dodging the walls they leave for you. The cool twist on the game is that you don’t control your light cycle by pressing buttons, you drive it by walking. GPS and compass sensors let you run around a park or field in order to evade and destroy your AI opponents inside the smart phone. Check out Coke’s demo for the app in the video below, and don’t miss the latest TRON: Legacy trailer and movie clip at the end of the post. This game is really addictive…and a little dangerous.

Here’s how you’re supposed to play LiveCycle: you go to some big open outdoor space, you fire up the app, and you start walking around. When a virtual opponent gets too close you can literally outrun them. Make a few hairpin turns and you’ll be ‘derezzing’ baddies in no time. AI opponents seem to get progressively harder, and they keep coming, but a good sprinter with some decent sense of direction can win until he or she gets too tired. There’s the standard social networking video game tropes (login with Facebook, Twitter, share scores, compete against friends, etc) to keep you busy while you catch your breath.

That being said, I ended up playing the game a little differently (and I should mention that I foolishly broke all the safety rules and regulations that Coke and Disney have plastered all over the app). First, I played inside my house, so I wasn’t just dodging virtual opponents, but my furniture, walls, and wife as well. That was fun for the shear mayhem. I also started playing on my way to work each day as I walked on the street. That was dumb. REALLY DUMB. Texting while strolling down the road is dangerous enough, but add in dodging a pink light cycle while tagging a green with your light wall and see how you do. Or better yet, don’t. I looked silly and I walked into a parked car. True story. True, really dumb, story.

Here's a screen capture form the Beta version. Watching the walls of your opponent box you in is harrowing. Please don't add in real world danger by playing this game in the streets.

I’m not sure how to characterize LiveCycle. Augmented reality? Video game with physical interface? A little bit of both, I think. It’s not the first game that asks you to move your body, nor is it the first that requires you to move around the real world, but it is still a pretty awesome experience. I’m excited to see how the plethora of sensors in mobile devices continue to revolutionize video games. We’ve seen how onboard cameras have opened up a whole new realm of augmented reality gaming experiences, and these are only going to get more amazing as we add in other technologies. GPS and compass sensing are just the latest additions to the game developers toolkit. LiveCycle uses them well, but we’ve seen them before, and we’ll see them again many times over. …But probably not with the flare and excitement that comes with TRON. The light cycle has always been one of the most iconic images from TRON, and it’s one of the prominently featured symbols for the upcoming TRON: Legacy sequel. Heck, we’ve even seen professional quality working replicas of the motorcycles sold on eBay. People want to drive light cycles, and they want to derezz opponents, and LiveCycle is about as close as you can get to doing those things in reality.

Man, the new movie is going to be awesome. Enjoy the latest trailer and movie clip below.

TRON: Legacy Exclusive Clip – Sirens Dress Sam

Trailer Park Movies | Myspace Video

[image credits: CocaColaZero, Disney, Aaron Saenz/Singularity Hub]
[video credits: CocaColaZero, Disney]
[sources: CocaColaZero]

Less than a year ago I was in despair, fearing that the iPhone was so far and above the rest of the smartphone market that Apple would completely dominate the field.  My willingness to own an iPhone in spite of this fear was the epitome of Apple’s power.  I had always hoped that Android would save us from near complete Apple domination, but a year ago things were looking pretty bleak.  Compared to Apple’s hundreds of thousands of apps, Android offered a laughable market. And the best phone that Android had to offer was the bulky and clunky G1.

Fast forward to today, and all of this has changed.  Phones based on Google’s Android are witnessing an incredible worldwide adoption.  In May of this year Google claimed that 100,000 Android phones were being activated everyday.  By August, Google CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed that daily activations had catapulted to 200,000.  Recent reports indicate that daily activations are now nearing 300,000.  At this rate, Android based phones will easily ship more than 100 million units over the next year.  And the Andoid market for apps is absolutely flourishing, recently boasting more than 100,000 apps.

I have been an iPhone owner ever since the first iPhone was launched several years ago.  As a long time linux enthusiast and open source advocate, it was difficult for me to sip the Apple Kool-Aid, but the iPhone was just so much better than everything else out there that I could not resist.  The iPhone was a game changing device.  Elegant, feature rich, easy to use.  Most importantly the iPhone ditched physical buttons entirely and went all in with a touch screen interface.  I never tried a Blackberry – I never understood the appeal of those stupid little keyboards and the crappy UI.  I longed for the day that a phone would be beautiful and easy to use, and Apple delivered.

But the iPhone has always harbored a nasty dark side.  The iPhone is tied to an ecosystem of apps, music, books, video, and advertisements that are all controlled by Apple.  This closed model of censorship from one single company poses a very real threat to our digital freedom and holds back innovation.  The world needs an open competitor, and Google’s Android is it.  Android represents the future of smartphones.  My next phone will be an Android.

This whole smartphone battle offers a fascinating window into the philosophy of innovation, open standards, and consumer choice.  On the one hand we have Apple’s closed model in which one company controls everything.  Such a model offers several compelling advantages.  Only with the singular vision and tight control of an outstanding company such as Apple could such a groundbreaking innovation as the iPhone be developed.  Apple’s closed model enabled the company to keep things simple and intuitive, ignore special interests, and cut out old paradigms such as the physical keyboard.  I applaud Apple for giving the world a smartphone revolution.  Yet even though Apple’s closed model was crucial for starting the revolution, that same model is not appropriate as the revolution carries forward.

The cracks in Apple’s “control everything” model are really starting to show recently.  Apple gets to play God and deny apps to its app store based on whatever reasons it chooses.  In the early days this helped to keep the nascent apps market a safe and trustworthy place to find apps.  But now Apple’s control of the app market is showing its dark side.  In many cases, Apple has denied apps simply because they competed with Apple’s own interests, or because they violated Apple’s moral vision about sex, decency, etc.  Apple is the gatekeeper of apps in its marketplace, and if you get on the wrong side of the all mighty gatekeeper’s interests, you are SOL.  On the flip side, if Apple decides it likes you and/or your app, you just might miraculously gain a position as a coveted “featured app” in the app store.

Even with its now 40,000+ employees, we also see that Apple is unable to innovate the iPhone as fast as the industry wants or needs it to.  Android competitors are able to come out with dozens of hardware models per year, versus Apple’s one model per year.  Android manufacturers are able to offer users more choice – different screen sizes, access to more phone networks, and a plethora of different hardware configurations.  Android can cater to different market needs and demographics, producing phones like the Droid for high end consumers, but also super cheap phones for the billions of consumers with more restricted budgets in places like India.

With its open source model, any person, any company in the world can contribute to the Android software repository.  Essentially Apple’s 40,000 or so employees are up against hundreds of thousands of individuals around the world.  Over the long term, there is simply no way iOS can keep up with the evolution that open source Android will achieve.  When it comes to a clean, intuitive interface Apple will continue to excel.  But when it comes to features, Apple is at a severe disadvantage.

Apple may have started the smartphone revolution with its elegant design and its paradigm shift to ditch the buttons and go all out for the touch screen, but the torch as the dominant player in this industry is now (and should be) passed on to Android.  Is Apple’s iPhone then destined to die a miserable and dejected death?  Of course not.  The smartphone market is still in its infancy.  Barely 10% of the world’s phones are currently smartphones.  In the next few years literally billions of individuals will upgrade their old school phones to smartphones, creating an enormous pie for both Android and Apple’s iPhone to take a slice of.  Yet whereas just a year ago the iPhone pretty much owned the entire market, moving forward Android will be the dominant platform and the iPhone will take a back seat with an ever more niche role.

This is not to say that the open model a la Android is all perfect and wonderful.  Android app developers must deal with the headache of building apps that can work on multiple versions of Android software and dozens of different versions of hardware.  The UI for Android is not exactly consistent from one phone to the next, creating much confusion for developers and users.  Android offers greater choice, greater flexibility, and a heck of a lot more features, but this comes at the cost of losing much of the elegance and simplicity that comes from Apple’s standardization.  You simply can’t have it both ways.

History has shown us this pattern over and over again ad nauseam.  The closed smartphone model (iOS) and the open smartphone model (Android) represent just the latest example of decades of similar cases: Internet Explorer (closed) vs Firefox/Chrome (open), AOL (closed) vs ISP’s (open), MySQL (open) vs Oracle (closed).  Both the closed and open models have offered their relative strengths and weaknesses.  In many of these cases the closed model is the early model that enables an innovative breakthrough that revolutionizes the field.  Subsequently the open model then takes over as the technology matures.  Smartphones appear to be exhibiting this pattern.

Notably absent from this discussion is any mention of Windows 7, Symbian, RIM, or other competitors.  Their omission is intentional, for these so called players presently aren’t really players at all, and their future looks bleak.  As it stands right now this is a two horse race between iOS and Android.

Although we have seen the story of closed model moving to open model many times before, it doesn’t always turn out that way.  Linux has emerged as the open standard for computer servers, but has been unable to unseat Microsoft’s multi decade  monopoly on the desktop.  As a result, consumers have been stuck with a desktop environment that is monolithic, buggy, expensive, and severely lacking innovation.

Without Google jumping into the fray with its mighty Android it is very possible, even likely that Apple would have beaten the crap out of everyone else and achieved a Microsoft level of smartphone domination.  This in fact was my very real fear just one year ago when Android appeared to be a failure and RIM, Symbian, and the rest of the gang looked like pathetic antiques.  An outcome with near complete Apple dominance would have been disastrous to digital freedom and innovation within the smartphone market. Luckily for all of us, that outcome appears to have been avoided.

I wasn’t one of the brave ones that ditched their iPhones even as Apple domination seemed imminent.  But the past is the past, and the future gives us the chance to make new, and better choices.  When it comes time to purchase my next phone, I intend to join ranks with what I feel is the positive force in the industry and buy an Android phone.  I hope you will do the same.

Blood glucose monitoring? There's a device, and an App, for that.

Multinational pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Aventis just unveiled it’s latest diabetes technology: a stand alone blood glucose monitor that can plug directly into your iPhone and iPod Touch. The device, known as the iBGStar, would allow diabetics to test their blood sugar levels on the go, record notes, and send information to their healthcare providers via a free iPhone App. According to Diabetes Mine, the iBGStar does not yet have FDA 510k clearance, but it is likely to come to market in January or February of 2011 for less than $100. Take a look at how the device will look with its own stylish iPhone case in the photo below. Devices like this are just another way in which continuous health monitoring could revolutionize medicine in the years ahead.

The iBGStar is built off of a very similar technology developed by AgaMatrix (the Jazz Wavesense). However, the Sanofi Aventis device is likely the first that directly plugs the blood glucose monitor directly into the iPhone. This will allow diabetics to carry the iBGStar as just another part of their mobile phone, hopefully granting them more freedom and flexibility in their testing habits. Sanofi Aventis has included their Dynamic Electrochemistry assaying process which reportedly has better accuracy than many glucose meters on the market.

Add a sleek case and you'd barely be able to notice the iBGStar attached to the phone. A small testing strip can be inserted through the case as seen in the bottom right.

The bigger advantage comes from the iBGStar Monitor App which users will be prompted to download for free the first time they plug in their device to their iPhone. As I mentioned above, the App allows diabetics to notate, record (up to 300 results with date and time), and send their tests to doctors. While many other monitors have allowed you to upload data to your computer, the iPhone connectivity to the iBGStar may make patients more likely to actually take advantage of this opportunity. The more data collected on a patient the more likely that healthcare providers will be able to notice dangerous irregularities and suggest new possible treatments.

Which brings up an interesting point. As cool as this new meter is it doesn’t really help with the underlying illness. While monitoring by hand is likely to stay popular in the years ahead, eventually we may see more people switch to continuous glucose monitors which are implanted directly into a patient. When combined with insulin pumps, as we’ve seen with the ‘artificial pancreas‘, such monitors allow the body’s glucose levels to be controlled with minimal input from the patient. I can only imagine the popularity of such automated devices will skyrocket once they are completely tested and approved for widespread use. Would you rather prick your finger for blood all the time and give yourself insulin shots, or would you just like a small implanted device to take care of things for you? Of course, one day we’ll hopefully have an outright cure for diabetes itself. We’ve already seen some very promising success in Brazil using stem cells. Until then, interesting innovations like the iBGStar will hopefully make the daily lives of diabetics easier and safer.

Here's a look at the iBGStar on its own, with a testing strip being inserted on the right. The device only adds about one inch to the end of the iPhone when attached.

[image credits: Sanofi Aventis]
[source: Diabetes Mine, iBGStar, Sanofi Aventis Press Release (PDF)]